Personal tax online return
| On the online personal tax return, you would like to have your childs' details pre-populated on your form.
| We reviewed the reasons for the current design.
The key reason we can't pre-populate this data is that the current software used for the form, can't link directly to the Revenue Management System.
Digital Services within Government are moving the onegov services website to more modern software. It does have the capability to integrate forms directly to other software systems, so this will be possible in future.
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Personal tax telephones
| You want to know when you call personal tax how long the wait time is, so you can decide if you want to wait or call back later.
Sometimes the call wait time estimate given is very long, even up to 2 hours. Customers hearing these wait times feel, rightly, that it is unacceptable.
| We considered two ways to give you an estimate of wait time, call wait time in minutes, and number of people in the queue before you.
The length of a customer call can vary, from 2 minutes to 30 minutes and the number of people waiting can change from one moment to the next. This means that both options don't always give an accurate prediction of wait time.
We have set the system to give a call wait time but published an explanation of the limitations on our home page,
gov.je/RevenueJersey
Removing the estimate would give no indication of how long the waiting time is and result in customers requesting it again.
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Social Security Contributions
| Some customers find themselves particularly behind paying their Class 2 contributions, but want to catch up so they can build up their contribution credit.
If they are over 6 months late, the period they want to pay has been closed. The reduced rate of contributions they had qualified for can no longer be applied to a closed period, per the law.
Customers found this added to their financial stress and have appealed to be able to pay just at the reduced rate.
| The law was reviewed by social security and revenue technical experts. The first step to change the primary law has been lodged by the Social Security Minister.
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Personal tax online return
| When you're ready to submit your online tax return it would be helpful to be able to review what you've entered on one screen so it's easier to check through.
| We've added a preview screen at the end, so you can see which sections you've completed.
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Treasury and Exchequer
Customer service
| Many advisers are extremely helpful, polite and understanding, but some of you experienced advisers being impatient, rude and un-sympathetic.
| We have invested in professional customer service training for all our customer facing colleagues both in Revenue Jersey and across the Finance Hub. Over the 4 month training period, our 'behaviour and attitude' related complaints have reduced by 73%, measured against the same period the previous year.
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Class 2 Contributions, Start Up Plans for businesses
| At the time you're setting up businesses and have to choose from the options we offer for paying class two contributions, you don't always understand what you'll have to pay. In particular you want the Start Up Plan to be more clearly explained, so you don't have to deal with unplanned payments further down the line. | We've highlighted a few things on gov.je that customers weren't realising about Start Up Plans. We're also developing a printable template our advisors will be able to use with customers, to help them understand their options and how payments are calculated. |
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| Class 2 Contributions, Lower Earnings Limit | You want more information on gov.je explaining the Lower Earnings Limit, and how it impacts you, so that if we write to you there is more explanation available for you. | We reviewed the letter that we send to you. We reviewed and improved the wording on gov.je and added more explanation. |
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| Contributions, Policy | You sometimes want to challenge whether the law is fair and give suggestions for change. | Our technical specialists have set up regular meetings with the advisors who support the Social Security Minister, and ensure your feedback is being considered. |
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| Employer Customers, Combined Employer Return | Some fields that needed to have information filled in, are not marked mandatory causing the form to work incorrectly. | This has been corrected, and instructions about those fields added to the start of the form. |
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| Personal Tax Customers, Online Enquiry Form | You don't always find its clear that you can add multiple enquiries to the form when you're using it. Submitting a form for each request is frustrating. | We highlighted the fact you can submit more than one enquiry with larger font and made this more prominent on the instructions page. |
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| Personal Tax Customers, Students | The information on gov.je is not really written for students' circumstances. You are new to employment, working limited hours, and spending time off-island at university. | We've created a new Student page with just the information you need, to get you started and tell you what you need to do. |
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| Personal Tax Customers, Third Party Pension Providers | Payment providers sometimes find the payments they send aren't correctly allocated, causing worry and frustration. | We've changed processes and asked providers to include all the information our cashiers and payments team need, to identify who and what the payment is for. |
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| Personal Tax Customers, Statements | Many customers find the statements difficult to understand and would like to have something simpler provided to them, clearly summarising how much they owe and listing their payments. | We've been working on this and are planning to test a new design of statement with a pilot group of customers during 2024. |
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| Personal Tax Customers, ITIS Rates | You receive your ITIS rate and don't understand why it's changed, or why a certain salary figure has been used | We've piloted a Tax Tips Email on understanding your ITIS rate and assessed the impact both on customer enquiries, and how helpful customers found it, and we'll be developing more Tax Tips emails as a result. |
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| Community Help Desk, Payments on Account | You are not always clear what you have to pay by November, and want an up-to-date picture of what you need to pay so you get it right. | We've piloted sending balance confirmations to all customers with an outstanding balance this year, so you know you have the latest picture without needing to contact us. If you don't agree with the figure, you can then call us to discuss, and confirm what's correct, before the deadline, rather than finding out at a later date.
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gov.je